Memorabilia (original title inAncient Greek:Ἀπομνημονεύματα,romanized: Apomnēmoneúmata) is a collection ofSocratic dialogues byXenophon (ca. 430 - 354 BC), a student ofSocrates (ca. 470 – 399 BC). The lengthiest and most famous ofXenophon's Socratic writings, theMemorabilia is essentially anapologia (defense) ofSocrates, differing from both Xenophon'sApology of Socrates to the Jury andPlato'sApology. Both Xenophon's and Plato's Apologies present Socrates as defending himself before the jury, whereas theMemorabilia presents Xenophon's own defense of Socrates, offering edifying examples of Socrates' conversations and activities along with occasional commentary from Xenophon.[1]Memorabilia was particularly influential inCynic and laterStoic philosophy.
Memorabilia is also known by its Latin titleCommentarii and a variety of English translations (Recollections, Memoirs, Conversations of Socrates, etc.).
TheMemorabilia was probably completed after 371 BC, as one passage (III.5) appears to assume the military situation after the Spartan defeat at theBattle of Leuctra in that year. For some chronological perspective, during the conversations with Socrates in Xenophon'sSymposium, scholarly calculations place Xenophon as an infant of only a few years old.[2]
TheMemorabilia contains 39 chapters broken into four books;Book I contains 7 chapters,Book II contains 10 chapters,Book III contains 14 chapters, andBook IV contains 8 chapters.
The overall organization of theMemorabilia is not always easy to make out:
In the lengthy first two chapters of the work, Xenophon argues that Socrates was innocent of the formal charges against him: failure to recognize the gods of Athens, introduction of new gods, and corruption of the youth. In addition to arguing that Socrates was most pious, and, as the most self-controlled of men, the least likely to corrupt the youth, Xenophon deals with informal political accusations not directly addressed in theApology of Plato (or Xenophon's ownApology). Xenophon defends Socrates against the charge that he led the youth of Athens to despise democracy as a regime, and defends Socrates' association withCritias, the worst of theThirty Tyrants who briefly ruled Athens in 404-403, andAlcibiades, the brilliant renegade democratic politician and general. It has often been argued that Xenophon is here responding not to charges in the air at time of the trial of Socrates in 399 BC, but to charges made some years later by the Athenian sophistPolycrates in hisAccusation of Socrates. But Polycrates' work is lost, and our sources for reconstructing it are late and unreliable. The assumption that Xenophon was responding to Polycrates point by point may be driven as much by the traditionally low esteem for Xenophon's literary powers as to any historical influence from Polycrates. The role of Polycrates is one item in the debate over whether Xenophon's treatment of Socrates reflects the historical Socrates, or is a largely fictional contribution to the literary debate about Socrates. This debate is in turn an important element in our understanding thetrial of Socrates, and in particular to the debate over whether the religious terms of the official accusation against Socrates (impiety) were a cover for political animosity against him.
Xenophon devotes the rest of theMemorabilia to demonstrating how Socrates benefited his friends and a wide range of other Athenians. It thus consists of episodes, mainly rather short and none more than a few pages in length, in which Socrates engages with a variety of persons: named and unnamed companions, rival teachers, famous and less famous Athenians. A few of the interlocutors appear several times. Typically Xenophon introduces the reason why he is writing about a particular conversation, and he will also occasionally interject a remark into the narrative, or at its conclusion.
Xenophon's Socrates is more likely to give practical advice than to ask probing philosophical questions, and Xenophon is more interested in defending Socrates than in developing his philosophy. Where Plato's Socrates emphasizes self-knowledge, Xenophon's Socrates speaks more of self-control. Yet theMemorabilia also contains charming set-pieces (including Socrates' conversation with the glamorous courtesan (hetaera)Theodote in III.11, and his sharp exchanges with two of theThirty Tyrants in I.2). And Xenophon likely aimed to reach a wider range of readers, many of whom may have welcomed the more down-to-earth advice his Socrates gives.
Xenophon's portrayal of Socrates was influential in antiquity, and helps us understand how various schools of ancient thought made use of Socrates. The self-control of Xenophon's Socrates is in keeping with his role in inspiring ancientcynicism, which was traditionally said to be founded by Socrates' followerAntisthenes. It is clear that theStoics made considerable use of Xenophon's version of the argument from design, and their account of natural law also owed something to Socrates, if not only to Xenophon's Socrates.
Aside from Plato and Aristophanes, Xenophon is the only contemporary of Socrates whose writings on the latter are extant.
Xenophon's account of howHeracles had tochoose between Virtue and Vice, a story he attributes toProdicus, became a popular motif in ancient Greek and Roman culture. It became popular again in theRenaissance.
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